Most of the Cherokees leaving Georgia followed what is today called the Northern Land Route from Southeastern Tennessee across the mountains, through Nashville and Hopkinsville, Kentucky. They would cross the Ohio River near Galconda, Illinois, and continue across Southern Illinois to the ice-swollen Mississippi. After crossing the Mississippi, they would go northwest to Rolla before turning to the southwest to Springfield and enter northwest Arkansas. After crossing Benton and Washington Counties in Arkansas, they would disband in northwest Indian Territory.

The Northern Route continued on the road parallel to State Route 8 into Steelville. West of Steelville, the detachments followed the present-day alignment of State Route 8 to St. James. North of State Route 8, in the Woodson K. Woods State Memorial Wildlife Area, is the Snelson-Brinker Cabin, which was a stopping point for some of the detachments. The house was owned by John Brinker in the late 1830s when the Cherokee indians camped on the property. Four members of the Richard Taylor detachment died while at the Brinker residence and are buried in the family cemetery on the property. Although the dwelling has been altered in recent years, the site itself is significant for its associations as a known camp and burial site. Snelson-Brinker Cabin is the last Trail of Tears certified site in Missouri, certified October 12, 2006; and is considered by many to be a location of indian burial grounds because of this event, possibly more then just those known to be buried in the family cemetery, or these four are actually buried in a different location along the river area of the original property. More recently, the tribe council or bureau came to the property and wanted to remove their dead and return them to the burial grounds at the reservation. This request was denied and currently the remains of any indians buried at the cabin still remain intact.

John Brinker, in the year 1837, had two daughters by the names of Vienna Jane, two years of age, and Sarah, who was just an infant at three weeks of age as noted in some documentations. Little is known of a Mrs. Brinker, she is not mentioned in any historical documentation and no one even knows her first name or if a Mrs. actually existed at the time of the tragic event that struck the Brinker household. Brinker also had a young slave girl named Mary who cared for the children among other duties at the cabin. She was housed in the lower portion of the spring and smoke house. One day in 1837, John Brinker hitched his cart and horse and went down into the very nearby community of Meramac Springs, an ironworks town back then and historical park today. He went for supplies. When he returned, he found that the eldest child Vienna Jane was missing. Mary would give no responses or recognition that she knew anything about where the child could be. The Sheriff was summoned and a search party set out to locate the child. She was discovered in a shallow riverbed behind the cabin deceased. Her head was bruised and battered as if she may have fell and been knocked unconscious and possibly drowning. However the Sheriff was suspicious of how the child met her demise.

The Sheriff set up with Brinker that he would once again go into the Springs for supplies, but this time they would take cover in the woods and watch the cabin. After Brinker was out of sight, they witnessed the slave girl Mary running out of the cabin with the infant, Sarah, and heading in the direction of the creekbed. They intercepted her before the infant could be harmed, and it is said that they tied her to the old tree to the right side of the cabin (if facing the cabin and the tree still remains but is dead now), and threatened to beat her if she did not talk. Mary then confessed to the killing of Vienna Jane. She stated that she tried to drown her, but the water was too shallow and she would not die, so in her words, she beat her in the head with a stick until she died. She also confessed that she was on her way to kill the remaining child, Sarah. There are different accounts as to her motive, one printed in a St. Louis Newspaper stating that she did so because Brinker was going to sell her. The other version is that she had been impregnated by and given birth to Brinkers child, and the elusive Mrs. Brinker made John Brinker sell the child. Therefore Mary committed this crime out of revenge for the loss of her own child. A news article of the times quoted Mary as being a shrewd girl, remarkedly fond of children, and that she exhibited no fear or compunction at the moment of apprehension. Mary gave her confession, signed it with an x, as she was illiterate, and was taken to jail to await her indictment and trial. The news article indicates that she spent time in the Potosi Jail, in Washington County, while awaiting trial. I am not sure why this would be however since her trial was held in Crawford County, Steelville, MO.

Mary was indicted on the first day, a jury of twelve white men were seated on the second day and by the end of the day she was convicted of first degree murder, the day being August 18th, 1837. The very brief trial consisted of witnesses testifying against her, those being Thomas Shirley, William Blackwell and John B. Brinker himself. Mary's confession was deemed admissible as evidence but caution was given to the jury, by the judge, that it could only be admissible as legal evidence if Mary had given the confession of her own free will without the influence of hope, fear, pain or torture. The defense offered up no evidence on behalf of Mary according to summurizing court records, such as the Sheriff posse tying her to the tree and coercing the confession from her and the fact of if this event really did take place remains questionable today, as no one presented such an event at Mary's trial. I believe it is safe to say that this event most likely did take place, one due to the era and it just being the way things were done when it came to slaves who were owned property and essentially such actions were common. Also, to this day there have been falsehoods in the case that have stood the test of time, such as Mary was hung from that tree in the cabin yard when found guilty of the crime. The tree has forever played an integral part of the story of Mary's case, and we know she was not hung from this tree, therefore the tree's stigma and true involvement in this case is very likely the case of it being a part of the coerced confession of Mary. Unlike most trials of today, Mary's was pretty much one sided completely. This is not to say that Mary was innocent of the crime, but I do believe it has been the basis of somes speculation of if she was truly guilty.

On August 19th, Judge Evans, the presiding judge on the trial, sentenced Mary to death by hanging to be carried out on September 30th, 1837. Her attorneys did make a motion for a new trial that Judge Evans denied, so they filed for appeal with the Missouri Supreme Court. The Missouri Supreme Court reversed Mary's conviction and granted her a new trial based on two grounds, inconsistent mode of death were charged in the conviction, beating the child to death with a stick and drowning her, and the fact that the proscecution continued to examine witnesses after agreement was made in the court that the evidence be closed, which would thereby be inflaming the jury against Mary, I believe. Her new trial was delayed over arguments of change of venue, the trial continuing into 1838. She was once again found guilty with no appeal process taken this time, and she was then hung by the Crawford County Sheriff on August 11th, 1838, at the age of 16/17. She was buried in an unmarked grave on the bluff on the north side of Steelville. Marys execution made her the youngest known person ever put to death under Missouri authority.

There have been discrepancies in Marys true age, some listing her as young as 13 yrs. old when she committed the crime. Unlike most other cases in the same era, Mary's case still has in existance extant court records, census material and at least four contemporary news storys about her. There were three out of state newspapers that quoted her at about the age of thirteen when she committed the crime, but they had taken the story verbatum from the St. Louis newspaper at the time. Another out of state paper noted her as about the age 14 at the time of the crime. The county history, published in 1888, lists her as age 16 at the time of her crime and that has been the most reliable information yet to go by.

Vienna Jane died a brief year later, at the age of one years old, of the plague that swept the Springs community and took the lives of most of the children in the area. Both Sarah and Vienna Jane are buried in the most elaborate graves in the family cemetery. Both of them having raised tombs, whereas the other graves are regular in ground graves with a headstone. There is also a pulpit like stand centered between, and at the bottom end, of the girls tombs..why I do not know.

The memory of the tragic event, of little Sarah and of slave Mary, remains consistently alive and ongoing. Willard Rand even wrote a play about the event titled, 'The Trial of Mary, a Slave', and it was presented in the 100 year old Crawford County Courthouse in two acts on April 18th and 19th of 1990. Despite the crime being a heineous act against an innocent child, I think both the spirits of Sarah and Mary touch the hearts of man, as both were children in this event. All the circumstances seem deemably sorrowful, Mary's condition of slavery and living in a room under the smokehouse, the possibility being great that she was used to bear children at such a young age, and the likelihood that a child born could have indeed been taken from her and sold. She was known to be remarkably fond of children, which seems so contary to her ability to murder a small child, especially one that she herself had nurtured since birth, therefore one has to question what tragedy consumed Mary to the point of committing such a vile and out of character act. They say that she exhibited no fear or compunction at the time she was apprehended, but if true then what could that actually indicate? What young slave girl would not have fear if surrounded by angery white men who had the authority and ability to hang her on the spot if they had wanted to. There were only two sides that bore witness to the event, Mary and her accusers, and Mary was a young illiterate slave girl condtioned since birth to being in captivity and kneeling to white mans authority, conditioned to not rise up against that authority. I am sure the white men on the scene were very threatening to Mary. So if she truly showed no fear at the time they rallied her up, then I personally would have to question if she lacked fear because she did no wrong and was not expecting such accusations to be lodged against her. No one really knows what went on that day at the cabin, and only one side of the parties present were of mind and authority enough to give witness in whatever form they chose, truth or fabrication, possibly down playing their role or inflaming Marys. There was no one at that time that would stand up against their word on the event. We cannot know how it truly came down, and none live on to provide information to the 'whole truth and nothing but the truth' as our court systems of today uphold. The tragic deaths of two young persons, and then yet a third within a short time, seem to stain the grounds of the Snelson-Brinker property and leave behind a haunting sadness that blankets this historical site.

Foreword for this investigation:
This investigation included, and was our first of, the property itself. We hiked into the woods before sunset, setting out to locate any indian burial grounds and the exact murder location of Sarah. What we came out of the woods with has increased the intensity of our research into this location. We also would like to note that during the evening hours of this investigation, focused on the cabin and family cemetery of which we are familiar with, we had guests attending. Pete, the current property owner and a long time friend to the location, being thoroughly responsible and involved in the restoration of the cabin since restoration has begun, graced us with his presense and his tales of experiences through the years, of both paranormal activity and sad to say much vandalism to the cabin. We are joining with Pete in his effort to keep the property and its legacy going. We also entertained a group of local teens who arrived to the property during the investigation, as their history teacher had told them of the events and encouraged them to make a visit. The cabin is restricted after dark to visitors, but the teens were so enthusiastic about the cabin and it's history, requesting that we show them around, that we elected to allow them in to observe the investigation and to provide them with the history. They were a great group of teens and we enjoyed having them, so much so that we may decide to start up a 'Junior Investigations' program. They were serious during the investigation and truly conducted themselves in a participating and interested manner, so we give them a big kudos. The girls may end up squealing now in the seeing of what occurred during their visit...

The Evidence:

We will begin with our late day hike into the woods of the property. This excursion was attended by four of our team members, Lorin, Dianna, Kristie and Bill. We did not take any equipment along except for cameras. We were mainly searching out particular locations during this venture and not focused on finding paranormal activity. Our plans were that if we were able to locate the places we set out to find, we would then return to do a formal paranormal investigation at those locations. We were definitely surprised with what we came out of the project with, on camera. Also know that I am not going to provide a lot of orb photos, even though they were obtained, which as we state orbs can be controversial for some. I am only providing orb photos of which I feel have some signifigance to the telling of experiences during this entire investigation date. However, I have found this particular investigation to hold some evidence as to the validity of some orbs beings spiritual manifestations rather then dust, as you will see as we go along in the photos and narration of time line and events.


After saying the above, yes...I am starting off with a photo of a large orb, but you will see the signifigance as we go along in the evidence. We reached the landmark that we were seeking which could help us locate any possible indian burial grounds, and this was the first sign of a presence that would remain with us throughout this investigation.


Upon locating our landmark and circling behind it where we needed to be, there was a fairly short..but steeper incline that we had to get down to go in any further. Kristie was the first to descend down the incline and was at the bottom walking about for a short time before the other team members descended. Lorin was guiding her from the top to specific areas that appeared to be burial mounds. The above photo is one of the first photos taken at the area below the landmark while she was making her way to a mound, and we were shocked to see what appeared when the photos were loaded into the system for review. It is difficult to see in the above photo due to the smaller resizing for the investigation page, but in the following photos you will see what is present in the boxes drawn in the above photos. It was almost chilling for Kristie in that she was down on its level of ground and her team mates were still above.


The above is a close up selection of the apparitions that appeared in the full size photo, the selection being reduced in size for the page, but left large enough so that you can see what was actually there. More examples follow.


The most prominant apparition in the photo in selected out full original sizing. We call him the 'Shadowman', and team members agree that he appears to be wearing, possibly, a thirties era suit. He appears to be a large man and a intimidating one as well.


To the left of the 'Shadowman', there appears to be yet another formation, but we are not as sure on this one. There is definitely something there as its formation is even blocking view of the tree directly at its back. Considering the location, this narrator feels it may possibly be an indian spirit as it appears to be wearing looser clothing and possibly holding a staff of some kind. It is just not manifested fully enough to tell.


This photo was taken by Kristie when she reached the mound Lorin was guiding her to. By this time Dianna had also descended the incline, and Lorin and Bill were still at the top. This is a photo taken while standing in the center opening of the mound itself and shooting back up the incline to the right of where they were standing. Again more viewable photos of what is captured in the boxes drawn follows.


Again these particular apparitions are not so clearly recognizable as our Shadowman, but this narrator sees the faces within both of these images. In number one it almost appears as a mask type face to this narrator, not fully materialized. Number two, if considering the dark shadow that is also a part of the formation, (at the top of the light colored formation) appears to be a male face with a hat on, the kind of hat men wore in the tv series 'Little House on the Prairie', or possibly a thirties era gangster style hat. We all tend to see different things in apparitions that are not clear enough to lock in on and different resolutions of individuals computers can also have bearing when displaying evidence photos online, so as always we welcome visitor input.


Another photo from the immediate wooded location where these mounds may be indian burial sites. The areas of interest in the photo have been drawn around and below follow the viewable photos of what is encapsulated here.


We really are not sure what this is, but there is something there and your guess is as good as ours. Be it just misty formation or other apparitions not fully manifested, we do not know. It was just another anomaly that showed up in this photo.


Loren and Kristie began walking down a ravine like area in the hillside below the mounds. It appeared to be a ravine that running water may have formed in the hillside, which may be one explantion of how this got here, a flooding carrying it down possibly, although probably more likely that man got it there somehow and if so, the particular area having to be a great deal more void of the heavy woods surrounding it now. Kristie noticed a vehicle further down the ravine and under Lorens watchful eye, continued down to the vehicle to further investigate. This was a photo taken by her as she approached nearer to the site. She took photos along the way down and none revealed anything, no orbs either. The orbs appeared on camera only as she came closer to the vehicle itself.


This is a selection from the original size photo depicting the tree directly behind the vehicle. There is a misty type formation along the tree that is nothing exceptional, but I also included it because the misty formation along with the two lone leaves adorning the twiggy branch created an interesting illusion effect for some, including myself, when first viewed. The image of a witchy looking woman with her right arm up and hand behind her head. However, that is just an illusion caused by the leaves.


This a closer up photo of the vehicle in hopes of someone who visits may be able to verify the make and era. It has been guessed to be from the thirties or forties, and possibly a Chrysler product, but no one knows for sure. It is obviously a junked vehicle to our guess, because nothing remains of the interior car, it is just the body. How it got here remains a mystery, one we hope to dig into just because it is situated in this area.


This is another photo of the wooded area near the car location, to the left side of the ravine if looking down towards the vehicle. You can clearly see the orb, and following is a closer look at what is encapsulated in the photo.


Again, no clue on this one. There appears to be something transparent forming, but what we have no idea.


Sunset was arriving, so the team members decided it was time to hike back out of the area before dark hit. This photo was shot back at Loren and Dianna exiting the landmark area. It was one of several that yielded the same thing, the two enshrouded in darkness and not viewable in the photo. The only thing viewable in this one being a unknown light and a large orb. In one of the photos taken back at them while this was going on, team member Bill was only a few feet in front of them and he showed up, but they still did not, there was only blackness where they were. This continued on in photos until Loren commanded whatever was covering to stay behind, then they became viewable again in photos. This is one of those things that one just has to take our word on, so we do not actually present it as evidence here, but I included this particular photo because of the large orb that it contained and I tell you this experience because this is when the event officially started. I told you that any orb photos I display here have a signifigance to the relaying of experiences on this date.


You will now follow us in the hike back to the cabin in photos taken along the way. This is a point where we are still at the landmark area, passing in front of it just a bit further out then where the last photo was taken of this orb, and yes we believe it is the very same orb based on all photos to follow. It is an opening looking down and across to the top of the inclined area we were at in previous photos. We had to circle into the location and back out.


And further out of the location. The orb is following beside us and it is not just showing up in one team members photos, but in all their photos.


We are now approaching the top close to the cabin. The sun has set as we came out.


Still approaching the cabin area and the big orb is still with us, now accompanied by a smaller one. almost as if it was waiting to greet the bigger orb and who continues to stay near it for the most part.


They are now trailing us around the side of the cabin.


Upon reaching the cabin, another team member who was joining for the evening investigation was there, and as soon as we met her in front of the cabin, a family arrived and asked if we minded showing them the cabin, their kids wanted to see it. Kristie volunteered to give them a tour, and another team member photographed them all going into the cabin. The large orb is still present, resting at the corner of the cabin watching the activity.


As they finish up entering within, the orb moves above the roof. You cannot see it well in this photo, but the small orb is also still present and has moved above the window on the left side of the structure.


As things settle down again, our unexpected family of guests gone and it becoming increasingly darker outside, the team preparing to enter the cabin and set up, the orbs remain vigilantly watching us. They are still hovering over the roof of the cabin, and even though very dark you can see the flag pole to orientate yourself to what you are looking at, which is the front of the cabin. I wanted to keep the orb trail in succession for you so you could see how this played out, but now I want to show you some other things that were captured outside while returning to the cabin area., so we are going to kind of back track at this point. Oh..and in case you are curious, the orbs continue with us the rest of the night as you will see.


We are back to where the four team members finally breached the yard of the cabin. Dianna is looking back at Loren whose arm you see at the edge of the photo. Note that his arm is encapsulated and another area is encapsulated. Following are the original size selections of why.


Probably no need for narration of this one, but there is an unknown apparition covering Lorens hand and camera. A small floating one. Could this be Tommy? We have no clue, it was just a thought. As I continue to analyse the photo however, I believe I see a female. The top reddish area appears to be a face with the hair up in bun, and she is wearing a long dress, and I can see the folds in the dress. As I said, we can see different things when an apparition is not totally clear.



This other we do not know, even enough to say that it is actually anything. It was just an oddity in the photo that seemed out of place for the back side of the cabin, best to recollection of seeing the cabin many times over the years. We actually need to observe this area closer upon return to see if anything natural caused this and we will update this photo when we know.


We took some photos around the yard area prior to officially beginning the inside portion of the investigation. This was a misty formation captured around a tree to back right side of the cabin. There is also an orb by the tree, but I do not think it is our trailing orb, it is too faint.


Here is our trailing orb and the little one sticking close to it again. Note that the small orb has switched positions, it has traveled to the right side of the large orb, in the last photo it was situated on the left side. But a couple of team members had also moved to the right side of the cabin towards the back to shoot some photos, (one of them being the above and others to follow) and it is if the little one had to get closer to watch what they were doing over there. If you are not yet convinced that some orbs are spirit manifestations, then you must believe that dust particles have intelligence. These orb photos are exhibited here to prove this pheunomia. It is pretty exciting. As spirits, I truly believe that the large orb is an adult and the smaller orb is a child, possibly related and interacting spiritually as a child and parent would have done in real life. The parent, probably a male spirit, maybe even John Brinker, keeping careful watch on the strangers trespassing on his property. Sarah or Vienna Jane or maybe even the male child we have interacted with, then meeting Brinker upon arriving back at the cabin and thereafter sticking close to him as they continue to observe what these people are doing on their property. When I, the narrator, realized what was going on in the sequence of photos that were taken, I was very excited, this was confirmation for me that spirits manifest as orbs, this evidence is undeniable in my mind now. I have never been this excited over orbs!


As noted above, at the point that our little orb person moved to the right side of the roof, two team members had also moved to that side to take some last minute shots outside. This is the spring/smokehouse structure (where the slave Mary was housed). Again you see an encapsulated area and the following selected portion will reveal why.


We have a beautiful blue orb, but also two apparitions manifesting here. One is to the left of the door opening against the brick, and the other is in the opening to Marys room, the dark shadow.


Again, the area is encapsulated and the selection to follow.


This one is difficult to show you, but there is a transparent formation in front of the door. It is difficult to separate it from the wood grain of the structure, but it is there and it appears to be a girl, and she is looking downward at a small girl child beside her. They are both in long dress. It is as if the older girl has the left hand of the child and is beckoning her to come on to leave, but the child is standing straight forward and looking straight forward as if watching us or something. It is so faint that one minute I can see it clearly, and if I look away I have to refocus again and relock into the images. I will try to do some kind of adjusting and pointing out of the images to help visualize the images and if able, post it here with this print.

I have lightened the photo and drawn around the figures. Mary is harder to make out then Vienna.


In a shot towards the smokehouse from a closer stance near the cabin, it seems that more little orbs have gathered.


We began our inside investigation, placing a doll on the floor behind some of the team members as we knew there was a child entity at the cabin from previous investigations and encounters, so we just started out enticing child entities. Next, and out of our usual order of presenting sound recordings, I have a short recording clip that was taking place at the same time as this photo was taken. (Note that we provide the evps in two different formats, the first one which is the white sound image, is a wav file. This is the best one to use because the second one is in mp3 format and the player will play all recordings on the page in succession if you use this one and you will have to stop it youself after each single evp. We only provided the mp3 format because some were having trouble getting the wav file to play, lacking real player or components. To use the preferred wav file, just click on the wav image and it will load another page to hear the evp, then you can hit the back button)



Recording at time of Orb photo


Dianna shot the first photo that you seen as soon as Heather stated she felt something touch her backside. This is rapid succession photo and the orb is gone again, Heather most likely frightening it by announcing it was touching her. But in the next shot a few moments later when Heather once again states she feels cold at her back....


We now have another orb, a bit larger and of different color. The last investigation we performed here, the male child entity kept touching Loren in the same spot that this orb is now touching Heather. Now, as then, we feel that there was more then one child in the room, but from our previous experiences the male child is not fearful and can even became pranksterish, he desires to be acknowledged.


This same orb has now followed Loren when he got up and walked away from the bench. This is unusual for me to present so many orb photos, but this night is so obvious that the orbs are indeed spirits interacting.
.


And our guests arrive. Typically we only post evidence photos on an investigation page, but since we had guests this night, we thought it would also be nice to post some regular photos as well, as the guests planned on visiting the investigation page to learn the outcome of the night. In this photo, Lorin and Dianna are sitting on the bench and Heather is standing on the one end. Pete and Bill are standing by the front entry door, and our teenage guests are grouped in the corner there observing. Kristie is in the opposite corner taking this photo. At this point in the investigation, the KII meter is being used to communicate with a spirit that was definitely working the meter into the red zone appropriately to questions. It was exciting to watch this interaction with the meter, a first for us to get that kind of interaction with the KII. The entity had established that it was a male child, but age was never determined. When we started out, we were using a doll to entice the spirit, but upon establishing through the spirit that it was male, we brought out a wooden ball for him to play with. I was so amazed at the KII interaction with this spirit, that the next day I pulled the KII out of the equipment box and tinkered with it, trying to make it do that kind of spiking myself, just to make sure it could not be something we were doing, and I could not get it to spike with pressure of touch to any area of it. even with bumping of the switch.


Our guests - you were great guys, are you ready to see what was around you?


Just another group shot.


Just another shot of the toys and area during the high level of activity with the KII meter. And yes, there were evps captured during this interaction that we will let you hear further along.


Are you ready kids? Another trailing orb, it starting at the equipment box. Loren has stopped interacting with the male child for a moment to explain to our teenage guests how the KII works and what is happening. The teens were asking questions, and it appears the child spirit wanted to investigate them during this lapse in getting focused attention from Loren.


Yep kids, it is moving in on you.


And it appears that two baby orbs follow suit while the larger one is checking all of you out one by one.

Once again, I am going provide recordings out of my usual order. I told you earlier that evps were captured during this time when the KII meter was spiking so high in response to questions, appropriately as asked to do in response to questions, such as are you a male or female, if male make the meter go to red..and it spiked to red. Below is the full untouched version of two evps captured at the end of the KII question and response session. The spirit seemed to become distracted from the meter when Loren breaked to explain the workings to the kids. He was not coming back to the meter and at this point we thought maybe he was finished communicating with us. I guess he actually was not, he just no longer wanted to play with the KII, he decided to just speak instead. Unfortunitely, we did not know he was still present and wanting to play, and we ended the session right after his evps were picked up on the dvrs, as we found out upon reviewing the recording.



Male Child Evp #1

Next is a shorter more amplified version of the full clip above



Male Child Evp #2

The next clip is the isolation of the first evp. If you have not already picked up on this one as to what the child said, he is saying "Play With Me".



Male Child Evp #3

As usual, we are going to slow it down for you for better clarity just in case you are having difficulty making it out, and below is the slowed clip of the first evp



Male Child Evp #4

Now we will move on to the second evp from the full clip. It is just a one word response to the question by Loren if his name is Bobby. We have already slowed it down for you in this clip so you can hear it clearly.



Male Child Evp #5

Our investigation now moves outside to the graves of Sarah and Vienna Jane.


And who goes with us? Yep, you got it, there is our big adult orb


And he or she hovers and watches


The arrival of another now appears


And there's a little guy, or girl, whichever the case may be...

And now another recording from the grave site. This is not an evp, but I guess in a sense it could be referred to as one of a different nature. The Frankbox device was taken to the cemetery and when this recording happened, the box itself was lying on the tomb of Sarah, and the headset was resting on Lorens leg. Loren was sitting on the tomb of Sarah, which the team members do sit on the tombs, not disrespectfully but to get closer to Sarah and Vienna Jane and to hopefully interact with them in a relaxed environment. We have not been using the box very long, and have yet to learn the quirks and total behaviors of the box or spirits utilizing the box. I. the narrating team member have had discussions with Dr. Jeff, whom is considered to be one of the Frank Box experts, and I understand the principle of the device and he has even provided me evps that he has recorded using a box, to familiarize me with what to expect. But aside from one prior incident of picking up a moaning through the device, this at the Talbot House investigation, we have experienced mostly the white noise sound of the box. So we were caught a bit off guard with what happened, and it even took a moment to figure out where the sound was coming from. Once we figured out it was the box, Loren put on the headphones and he tried to obtain communication, at one point hearing something. We are not sure what this sound means, but I plan on having Dr. Jeff listen to the recording and provide his insight into the event.



Frank Box Dvr Recording #1

Below is a clip of just the box sounds in case you do not want to listen to the entire clip, or would like to hear the sounds isolated from the rest of the clip.



Frank Box Isolated Dvr Recording #2

I also wish to note that our team member Heather captured several photos of what appeared to be shadow children in the edge of woods close to the graves. If I remember correctly, there may be a mention of this in the full recording above, as everyone viewed the photos on her camera screen and saw the shadow people and I think there were some still talking about the photos when the Frankbox went off. That event may be clipped out however. We were unable to present those photos here because Heathers camera took the photos in a pixel size that we could not make viewable enough on the webpage. We would have to enlarge the photos and they then would suffer distortion. I am still trying to see if I can make them viewable without losing the intregrity of the photos, and if I find a solution, they will be posted at a later time.


Closing the investigation for the night, we headed back from the cemetery. Kristie felt that the group was being followed and trailed behind the others in order to shoot photos back to the location. An orb is captured following behind.


She stopped in place and allowed it to get closer and then took another shot of the orb. Loren called back to her asking what she was doing, and she discontinued taking photos and caught up with the group. Loren was like a protective Lion over his team members on this investigation because a bear with a cub had been sighted on the property early in the week, and we had been smelling a musky odor on the breeze throughout the day and night of this investigation. It could have been bucks in rut, but we were being cautious as a team and staying close together.

The teens dispursed and left the location and the team members and Pete lingered behind talking for a short bit. Pete, Kristie and Dianna entered the cabin to pack up, and Pete began telling them about a paranormal event he had experienced in the cabin. He told the story about how one night in the fall, cooler weather like we have now in October, he and his son decided to spend the night in the cabin. They built a fire in the fireplace and had gone to sleep for the night, when Pete was awoken by intruders in the drive. He went out to confront them, as there has been a great deal of vandalism to the cabin and he ended up chasing them down the road. When he returned to the cabin, he found his son sitting outside on the fence shivering. He asked him why he was out there, and his son responded that he would never go back in the cabin alone again. His son relayed an event that happened while Pete was gone. He said he was awoken by footsteps, pacing footsteps at the fireplace, and when he sat up to look he saw a woman walking back and forth cradling a baby. He quickly ran out of the cabin. Pete did not believe he really saw anything, being skeptic at that point, and felt he had just been dreaming. They went back into the cabin and fell back asleep. This time Pete woke to the sound of the footsteps pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace. Pete states that he believes the apparition was Mary pacing and comforting the child Sarah. As Pete was telling this story to the team members, one of them took a photo towards the fireplace....


It is hard to see in this reduced size photo, but there is also a small orb in the fire place opening.


A small orb, possibly the same orb as in the fire place, moves to the back entry door handle


The team member opened the back entry door and the little orb went out.


Amother team member leaned out the door and took a photo randomly out into the back yard, and the bright white areas in the photo are actually the underneath of the roof due to the angle of the shot. The team member originally set this photo aside and was not going to use it, but then retrieved it back out when she was provided this next photo by another team member and she realized they had captured the same anomalies at different times and in different places, which brought curiosity into what these things could be.


The other team member presented this photo and stated despite using the flash, the photo came out dark like this and this odd object was the only thing showing up in the photo. I know you cannot really tell anything from these two photos, but below I have made a composite from the two photos in larger format, selecting only the objects themselves to show you.


We have no explanation for number one photo, and it was obvious that the number two photo was a capture of the same object but in flight, as is really more evident in the full size original, but again we had to reduce somewhat to make the composite suitable size for the page. We are not sure if number three photo, another element in the photo with the number two object, was another one of these strange objects or an orb in motion. It is a pretty blue, but not this solid light turquoise color of the other two objects. There probably is no explanation of what these objects are, but if anyone has any ideas, please email us and share them.


While the two team members were inside with Pete, the other three were still outside and this was another strange photo that was captured. At first look we had to rule out if any vehicles were causing a reflection, but there are no vehicles in this shot. Below are selections of the individual lights.


The small solid red light that was at the right edge of the photo and is barely visible in the full photo above, was a light that was caught on another photo early in the investigation outside. The team member submitted that photo also, because none of the team members work with red lights. The only red lights we have are the tiny lights on the dvrs, and there were no dvrs being carried around outside when these photos were taken. Plus the dvr lights would not be as large as the red light in this photo or the other. These also are not bugs, we are used to seeing bugs. The little blue light may be a bug, but the larger reddish lights are not. We again welcome any input or ideas.

Case Conclusion:

The cabin, and especially the grounds below the cabin are heavy with paranormal activity. This truly is a haunted ground and obviously by more then just our main characters in the story of the tragic event at the cabin. The property is populated with spirits of which no one really knows who they all may be. Possibly anyone buried in the cemetery. Possibly the spirits of indians as this property is a part of the Trail of Tears and possibly a location of battle during the Civil War, of which further research is being done. Possibly children who died from the plague in the very nearby Maramec Springs community. The property and surrounding properties could hold a vast number of deaths that have occurred from the time of its origination to current day with the highway immediately adjacent to the property. Above we have shared some of the spirits that we have encountered and captured in this investigation at the location. One is a male child that has made himself available to us on every investigation, which are only two to three in number at this time, and so far seems to be a constant fixture at the cabin. We believe his name is Tommy, but cannot be absolutely sure of such. In this investigation we came away with more intimidating spirits then just the male child though..our 'Shadowman'. We will continue this investigation on the property and in the cabin, expecting to encounter increased activty with each visit. It seems the spirits that reside here are getting used to us and becoming more willing to present themselves, which I have found to be a good reason to keep returning to a location.

If you would like Show Me Paranormal to assist you with any suggestive paranormal activty you may be experiencing, you can email us for an investigation application or visit our 'Investigation Request' page.


All content upon this page is the copyrighted material of Show Me Paranormal